ring for Miss Rose McLean. She was out, and the landlady
did not know when she would be back. Probably after her sister got
home from work.

Lane wandered down to Curtis Street, sat through a part of a movie,
then restlessly took his way up Seventeenth. He had an uncle and two
cousins living in Denver. With the uncle he was on bad terms, and with
his cousins on no terms at all. It had been ten years since he had
seen either James Cunningham, Jr., or his brother Jack. Why not call
on them and renew acquaintance?

He went into a drug-store and looked the name up in a telephone book.
His cousin James had an office in the Equitable Building. He hung the
book up on the hook and turned to go. As he did so he came face to
face with Rose McLean.

"You--here!" she cried.

"Yes, I--I had business in Denver," he explained.

"Like fun you had! You came because--" She stopped abruptly, struck
by another phase of the situation. "Did you leave Cheyenne without
riding to-day?"

"I didn't want to ride. I'm fed up on ridin'."

"You threw away the championship and a thousand-dollar prize to--to--"

"You're forgettin' Cole Sanborn," he laughed. "No, honest, I came on
business. But since I'm here--say, Rose, where can we have a talk?
Let's go up to the mezzanine gallery at the Albany. It's right next
door."

He took her into the Albany Hotel. They stepped out of the elevator at
the second floor and he found a settee in a corner where they might be
alone. It struck him that the shadows in her eyes had deepened. She
was, he could see plainly, laboring under a tension of repressed
excitement. The misery of her soul leaped out at him when she looked
his way.

"Have you anything to tell me?" he asked, and his low, gentle voice was
a comfort to her raw nerves.

"It's a man, just as I thought--the man she works for."

"Is he married?"

"No. Going to be soon, the papers say. He's a wealthy promoter. His
name's Cunningham."

"What Cunningham?" In his astonishment the words seemed to leap from
him of their own volition.

"James Cunningham, a big land and mining man. You must have heard of
him."

"Yes, I've heard of him. Are you sure?"

She nodded. "Esther won't tell me a thing. She's shielding him. But
I went through her letters and found a note from him. It's signed 'J.
C.' I accused him point-blank to her and she just put her head down on
her arms and sobbed. I know he's the man."

"What do y